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September Minutes

The first ~45 minutes consisted of self-introductions of visitors followed by miscellaneous and wide ranging discussions of various subjects and items related to electric vehicles. Bruce Cohan ( a visitor) made an appeal to the group for help with the funding to help pay for the shipping of three electric Jr. grand prix cars to California. At approximately 8pm the discussion turned to the subject of the $6,000. grant from Nissan motors. President Charlie Garlow read the contract listing the requirements that Nissan expected of EVADC . Charlie explained that the actions required by Nissan were fairly simple, inexpensive and not very strict.

Dave Goldstein (president emeritus) then spoke, requesting that the membership agree to spending ~ $3,200. of that money to buy radio advertising – sixteen 10 second radio “spots” on station WTOP “drive time” to encourage the listeners to come to the EVADC Plug-in events. Dave also explained that the radio “spots” needed to be bought ASAP so that they can be broadcast before the event.

More discussion about buying “spots” on radio stations other than WTOP. Dave argued that WTOP was the best station to use. Also discussion about asking Nissan to modify their ads to include mention of the Washington DC Plug-in day. Dave explained that it was too late to get Nissan to change their ads and that their ads were more nationwide than local.

At 8.17 pm , Charlie ask the membership to vote to accept the $6,000 grant from Nissan. Bob Bruninga made a motion to accept the Nissan offer as contained in the contract that Charlie had explained earlier. Eric Cardwell seconded the motion. More discussion about various requirements of the contract. Lanny Hartmann asked Charlie what were the possible consequences if EVADC failed to perform one or more of the requirements in the contract. Charlie pointed out it will be quite easy to meet the requirement and if EVADC failed a couple of requirements due to circumstances beyond our control it is very unlikely Nissan would take any action. Nissan sees EVADC as an ally. Charlie then called for a vote by show of hands. The result was 36 to 0 in favor of the motion. The count was done by Bob Bruninga.

As understood by me (Dennis), the vote was to accept the Nissan money and that Nissan is the sole car company sponsor for EVADC’s 2013 Plug-in events. It does not limit any other sponsors except car companies, and it is only for this event. And there is no limit on other cars being displayed. And that ~ $3,200. would be used for the radio spots. Any money remaining after the event will go into the EVADC bank account to be used for whatever purpose the club decides.

Then a suggestion was made that since many of the club members were not in attendance, that on line voting should be done. Lanny Hartmann stated that it is not a requirement in the bylaws that an online vote be done for all votes. It was also pointed out that the vote was so one-sided that even if on-line voting were done, it was very unlikely it would change the result. Dave added that buying the radio spots could not wait for online results.

A suggestion was made to record the vote as the final vote with no on-line voting. Bob Bruninga made a motion to approve that. Eric Caldwell seconded the motion. Charlie called for a show of hands. The vote was 36 – 0 ( or possibly 35 – 1) in favor of the motion.

Charlie then asked for volunteers for a committee to make decisions about how on-line voting could be implemented for EVADC. I do not know if anyone responded. (editors note: there is a committee working on this with report to follow shortly)

At this point I stopped taking notes. I do not remember any significant club business being discussed or decided for the remainder of the meeting.